Strong Mayors & Organizational Change

Strong Mayors & Organizational Change

The Context Municipal governments in Ontario have experienced a seismic shift. Effective May 1st this year, the Better Municipal Governance Act amended the Municipal Act, expanding strong mayor powers to the heads of council for 169 single and lower-tier municipalities with councils…
June 11, 2025Posted inBlogs
Tales from the Fishbowl #2

Tales from the Fishbowl #2

Leading Through Conflict Anyone with local government experience knows that small town politics can get messy sometimes. People are deeply passionate about their communities, so when they think their government leaders are screwing up, they get vocal about it. In my 12…
January 31, 2025Posted inBlogs
Beyond Squeaky Wheel Leadership (SWL)

Beyond Squeaky Wheel Leadership (SWL)

You may have heard the saying, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.  American writer Josh Billings popularized this saying over 100 years ago in his poem “The Kicker”:  I hate to be a kicker, I always long for peace, But the wheel that squeaks…
August 7, 2024Posted inBlogs
Getting Sh** Done Leadership

Getting Sh** Done Leadership

Getting Sh** Done Leadership The year was 1988. High school wrestlers from across North America. I was on deck. My opponent was from a Michigan prep school and in his matching red, white, and blue singlet, track pants, and jacket, he looked…
August 7, 2024Posted inBlogs
Beyond the “Trap”: Playing to Win

Beyond the “Trap”: Playing to Win

Remember the “Neutral Zone Trap”?  If you are any kind of hockey fan at all, you will remember back to the late 1990s and early 2000s when hockey got extremely boring because of a highly defensive strategy called the “neutral zone trap”.…
August 7, 2024Posted inBlogs
Tales from the Fishbowl #1

Tales from the Fishbowl #1

My Hometown   Between 2014-2022, I was mayor of a small town in Southwestern Ontario. The Township of Centre Wellington was formed in 1999 when the Town of Fergus, Village of Elora and a few surrounding hamlets and farming communities amalgamated as part…
July 7, 2024Posted inBlogs